Gmail Partial Outage Disrupts IMAP Client Syncing And Functions

If you’ve had trouble with your Gmail, you’re not alone. Google announced on Monday that its email service has experienced a problem “affecting a significant subset of users” since 10:22 a.m. EDT.

Those who have encountered the problem are still able to access the service, but error messages and other “unexpected behaviors” have popped up due to the issue. This is mostly affecting those who use an IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) email client to access the service, such as Outlook or Apple Mail on desktop and mobile. Gmail users who primarily use a Web browser or the Gmail app to view their emails don’t appear to be affected.

Google will provide a status update at 1:15 p.m., when it hopes the problem will be resolved. However, it notes that time could change. No other Google App service has been affected by the outage, according to its status page.

The outage is one of many that have occurred in the past few months, including one with Apple's iCloud, which brought down its email services for a few hours earlier this month.

Update 1:59 p.m.: Google says the Gmail problem has been resolved. But if problems persist, it advises users to reconnect their IMAP client.